Philippine E-Journals

THE BABEL OF BOOKS: LIBRARIES IN AND OUT OF WALLS

Vicente L. Rafael

 

Abstract:

Books in all shapes and forms make up libraries, and since language makes up books, then libraries are built on the limitless expanse of language. Wandering around shelves, one feels caught in a linguistic maze where there is only an entrance but no exit. One apprehends more than one can comprehend, as one book leads to another, referencing and cross-referencing authors and topics, indexing moments and movements. A sublime simulacrum of Babel, the library, as Borges once pointed out, is the materialization of the power of language to create vast worlds, not merely signify them. One goes to the library and one plunges into a roiling ocean from which there is potentially no escape. Libraries are aporetic sites that entreat only to entrap the unsuspecting reader.